When I started [working as the artistic director] at Courrèges in 2020, we occupied just one floor of a seven-story building [in Paris’s Eighth Arrondissement; André Courrèges founded the company in 1961 and opened his first store there six years later]. Little by little, we’ve begun renting the others. This picture (above) was taken a year into the job, on the day I moved into my new office. When I arrived, I found a piece of paper with a note for me from André’s wife [Coqueline Barrière]. It said, “Never repeat the past. Create your own future.” The spring 2023 show was about the passage of time. The fabric on this dress (below, right) is molded from silicone to look like coral, which can last thousands of years under the sea. When it comes to embellishment, it really needs to add a layer to the story of the collection. I’ll never make a special fabric just for the sake of it. I recently did [a one-off] couture [collection] for Jean Paul Gaultier, and people were telling me, “Dream, dream.” But in my dreams, I don’t see crazy fabrics. For my [fall 2022 Courrèges] show, we covered the floor with thousands of crushed cans (below, center left). They were so shiny they looked like diamonds, but it was just rubbish. I try to find beauty where it’s not.
I grew up in Charleroi, Belgium, and when I was 3, my family took a trip to the French Pyrenees (above, left). My mom was working for a travel agency, and I remember long hours in the car with my sister. I was a hyperactive kid — gentle, but a bit tiring. During Carnival in Belgium, you dress up and knock on doors asking for candy. Apparently, I did this every weekend. My parents told me that the neighbors would send me home and be like, “Not every weekend, please.” Each summer, I go to this little Greek island (above, center right) with my boyfriend. It’s one of my favorite places on earth. You just eat, swim, ride around on your scooter, nap, get ready for dinner and voilà. There aren’t too many people, and it hasn’t changed in 20 years, so I don’t want to share exactly where it is.
“A Swedish Love Story” (below, right) is one of my favorite movies. It’s a simple film [directed by Roy Andersson and released in 1970] about teenagers falling in love no matter what their families think. There’s this contrast between the toughness and vulgarity of the adults and the purity of the young ones. (Don’t hate me if it’s boring.) I love this Baffo chair (below, center) [designed in 1969 by Ezio Didone and Gianni Pareschi] because it’s so simple and geometric: From the top, it seems like a square. There’s something dark about it, too — a bit Mapplethorpe. I had one in my old apartment, but it doesn’t look good in the new one.
The 19th Arrondissement, where I now live, has some of the highest points in Paris. From my home on the eighth floor (above, left), I have 360-degree views of Parc des Buttes-Chaumont; it’s beautiful because it was built on a garbage dump. I remember climbing its fences at night with [the fashion designer] Glenn [Martens] when I was working at Balenciaga and he was at Gaultier. One time, we slept there.
A few years ago, we reprinted this 1999 Vinca Petersen book, “No System” (above, right), to sell at a [Courrèges-sponsored] pop-up store in the Marais. It’s everything that I love: photographs of people at raves, the vivacity and intensity of dance and communion and the poetry that goes with it. When I look at this picture, I can imagine what happened before and what’s going to happen. I always bring friends to Privilege, a nightclub in Ibiza (above, center). They closed it a few years ago, so everything’s abandoned. It’s not the nostalgia I’m attracted to — I just think it’s beautiful that a place that’s supposed to be so alive seems like it’s sleeping. This picture of my friends from 2020 (above, left) represents an explosion of freedom. We’d been locked in our apartments because of Covid-19, so we decided to organize a party in Bois de Vincennes, a forested park bordering Paris. The music was amazing and loud. The weather was gorgeous. It felt like being reborn.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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